Christian Liden, a 26-year-old romantic from Poulsbo, Washington, was a man on a mission. His lifelong dream had been to create an engagement ring for his fiancee from materials he had found himself, and he'd already managed to pan for sufficient gold in his home state to make the band of the ring. He'd spent five years doing so, in fact. And now, he just needed the ring's centerpiece: a glittering, bright stone.
So, earlier this month, he headed with a friend to Arkansas. They went to the Crater of Diamonds State Park with his engagement-ring-based mission in mind, and they started to search. For two days, they found nothing significant. But on the third day, the 9th of May, Liden hit upon treasure beyond what he'd hoped for. It was in the dirt on the West Drain of the 37.5-acre diamond search area of the park - on the surface of an ancient volcanic pipe.
I saw it shining as soon as I turned the screen over and immediately knew it was a diamond. I was shaking so bad, I asked my buddy to grab it out of the gravel for me - Christian Liden
After carefully placing the yellow stone in a bag, Liden took it to park officials, who confirmed that it was indeed a diamond. It was a 2.2 carat yellow diamond - the largest found at the park since October 2020 (when a whopping 4.49 carat one had been found).
The diamond Liden found is a pale yellow color, with slight luster, and as is common with diamonds from the park it has some natural imperfections, making it truly one-of-a-kind. It's a triangle shape and seems to be crying out to form the center of an engagement ring: the sort of ring that Liden claims he has been planning in his head since he was at school.
Liden was delighted with his find. He had assumed that he would only find small diamonds, and that he'd need to search elsewhere for a large center stone, but the diamond he found is easily big enough to form the main attraction for an engagement ring.
But he's not stopping there. Liden's next mission is to mine for opals in Nevada before he returns home. Maybe his fiancee will get more than one piece of jewellery out of the trip?!
For anyone wishing to undertake a similar mission, the Crater of Diamonds Park sounds like a good bet. Although rarely as impressive as Liden's, visitors to the park find a diamond or two every day, and 121 diamonds have been registered there this year alone. Time for a visit, perhaps?